Seizing Control
The Four Heroes of Yellow Lake stepped down from the carriage, every one of them wide-eyed as they looked about in every direction.
The flames visible from the command post were far off, yet—
With every gust of wind, the exposed skin of their faces burned as if they stood right before a bonfire, and the acrid reek of smoke stung their nostrils.
"This way!"
People shouting from every direction; patients thrashing on the ground, screaming and moaning.
"Get a hold of yourselves!"
"Y-yes!"
A maid of Wongak Pavilion seized Kong Dam-ung by the shoulder and yanked him hard; focus snapped back into his eyes.
"Have you come to help?!"
"Please, come with us at once!"
Kong Dam-ung barely managed to haul his comrades clear as a throng of people carrying flails, hammers, and other tools for fighting the fire surged past, nearly sweeping them away.
"That way!"
The flames leaping here and there only deepened the shadows, making faces nearly impossible to recognize.
"We have to go that way!"
He pointed toward where the maids were gathering.
His voice was always loud, but in a situation like this, conversation was impossible without shouting.
Messengers raced in every direction; crowds scattered this way and that, then merged and ran somewhere else. In this place the very idea of direction seemed not to exist, and among the dizzying motion they had no idea what to do.
They could only stand behind the assembled maid corps and feel as though they had become lost children.
Beside them, women in armor stood gathered in awkward clusters. Through the gaps in their armor, splendid Buddhist robes could be seen; each bore weapons, and the internal energy they possessed was far from ordinary.
"...."
Ordinarily they would have introduced themselves at once, but the women's faces were deathly pale, and it was no time for conversation.
Master Yeon...?
He lifted his head of a sudden, searching for Yeon So-hyeon—but even a giant like him could not hope to find a single boy in a situation like this.
But even Master Yeon—what could he possibly do in a place like this...?
Then a vast voice cut through all the clamor and noise and drove itself into his eardrums.
"All officers in charge, assemble at the command tent at once!"
It was not merely a loud voice. When one poured internal energy into a shout, it was supposed to cow and terrify those who heard it—yet this voice carried a subtle principle that instead cleared the minds of all who listened.
Is that not Shaolin's Lion's Roar?!
He knew at once whose voice it was.
Master Yeon!
Escorted by Chief Maid Jeong-a, First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon entered the command tent to be met by the Fourth Young Master's three closest confidants.
"We pay our respects to the First Young Master of our house. I am—"
"I already know who you are. Formalities can wait."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded at Gwak Nopin's words and strode straight past the three. His gaze swept swiftly through the interior of the command tent.
In the square command tent, each of the four corners had been claimed by a different faction, as if they had set up camp.
Bi's subordinates, the House of Mercy, and Hyeonwol Pavilion.
Behind him, the officers who had heard his Lion's Roar began pouring into the tent in a rush.
"W-whose voice was that just now?"
"The moment I heard it, my mind went clear!"
Leaving aside the three work spaces already occupied by the factions, he mounted the dais prepared at the remaining corner. Behind him, as always, stood Chief Maid Jeong-a. Yang Tong, Hyeonwol Pavilion's officer in charge for the Valley of Sin who had entered with him, had already sprinted into his own work area.
"Is this it?!"
"Yes!"
Yang Tong came running to Yeon So-hyeon in a hurry, carrying a stack of notes and reports he had taken from a subordinate, and held them out.
"These are the unprocessed intelligence gathered in your absence, and the record of activity within the command tent after the fire began, as you requested."
Through Jeong-a, Yeon So-hyeon received the stack of notes and the report, sat in the chair, and began speed-reading them.
"Hmm."
While Yeon So-hyeon read, the command tent filled and bustled with officers streaming in from every side.
"So that's the First Young Master we've only heard of in rumors."
"Did the First Young Master summon all of us?"
Some glanced at the unfamiliar Yeon So-hyeon as if looking at something curious.
"In the middle of this chaos, gathering every last one of us—what is the meaning of this?"
"Hey, if we don't get back out there right now the field will seize up solid...!"
Others, faces black with soot, looked at Yeon So-hyeon with impatience, doubt, and even irritation.
"Isn't this the time when we need to keep as many hands moving as we can...?"
"Hmph. Even desk-bound folk like us know that much..."
The scholars, too, began clicking their tongues as they watched Yeon So-hyeon silently flipping through notes and reports at high speed.
The agents of Hyeonwol Pavilion started to voice some complaint, then shut their mouths under the sharp look of their officer, Yang Tong.
Standing in the middle of that throng, Gwak Nopin swallowed a sigh inwardly.
"...I only hope this does not slide into the worst case I was dreading."
"...."
The murmuring swelled. The Fourth Young Master's three closest confidants looked back and forth between Yeon So-hyeon and the increasingly restive assembly, their concern growing.
And just as dissatisfaction began to burst out here and there—
"Silence, all of you!"
This time it was not the Buddhist Lion's Roar that clears the mind, but the Daoist Lion's Roar said to cow and drive out demons and evil. A sensation that went beyond ringing in the ears and made the guts lurch swept through the assembly; every eye turned on Yeon So-hyeon in shock.
Did the First Young Master just use martial arts?!
Before they could even finish feeling the dissonance between the rumors of the Swordless One they knew and the technique Yeon So-hyeon had just employed, he surged to his feet.
I have finished assessing the problem.
His gaze sought out Gwak Nopin. The command tent was packed with people, but looked at more carefully, each faction was still clustered with its own. Finding her standing in the shelter of the Fourth Young Master's subordinates was not difficult.
"Gwak Nopin!"
"Yes, First Young Master!"
The instant she answered, Yeon So-hyeon's order fell.
"From this moment, you are the supreme commander of fire suppression."
His gaze turned on the assembly as he continued.
"Therefore, every officer currently responsible for fighting the fire will report the problems of the present situation to Gwak Nopin."
At the sudden order the tent fell silent for a beat; Yeon So-hyeon barked shortly.
"At once!"
The moment his voice landed, the fire-suppression officers gathered on the House of Mercy's side flocked to Gwak Nopin. Startled at first, she soon began skillfully synthesizing their reports.
Gwak Nopin. Called the Sleeping Dragon of the South, the master of disordered battle who was once a thorn in the side of the military commanders of the Yue Kingdom.
In this chaos, she was the optimal person to suppress the greatest threat—the fire.
"Tang Ye-rin!"
"...Y-yes?! Me?!"
Caught in Yeon So-hyeon's gaze, Tang Ye-rin answered with a start.
"From now on, together with the scholars, you will establish and continuously update a comprehensive situation board. You are in charge!"
"A c-comprehensive situation board—you mean gather every piece of information in one place...?"
"That is correct."
Yeon So-hyeon pointed at the temporary partition wall prepared behind him and shouted.
"Why are you not up there starting this instant?!"
"Yes! Yes! Understood!"
She and the Fourth Young Master's scholars came running and began affixing large sheets of paper to the partition.
"Hear me!"
Yeon So-hyeon cried out to them all.
"From this moment, every scrap of information on the present situation will be shared centered on this comprehensive situation board! No organization is excepted!"
At those words, Yang Tong of Hyeonwol Pavilion and his subordinates, and the House of Mercy's intelligence officers, immediately threw themselves at the situation board to help update it.
"And Yang Tong!"
Yang Tong, brush in hand and already marking the current state of affairs himself, spun around with military snap.
"Your orders!"
"From this moment, the pursuit of fire suspects and suspect factions is suspended. We must throw every effort into restoring the present situation alone. Henceforth, all personnel of Hyeonwol Pavilion will concentrate on situational awareness and the transmission of orders!"
"Yes, sir! I receive your command!"
Yeon So-hyeon nodded and turned to the scarred man standing blankly nearby.
"You are a mercenary captain?"
"...Yes. That is so."
"Where are the captains of the other mercenary companies?"
The man scratched the back of his head.
"They've all gone out to put out the fire right now..."
"Good."
Yeon So-hyeon cut him off.
"Then until this situation is over, you are the security captain."
"M-me, sir?"
The mercenary captain suddenly saddled with a new post blinked; having read his nature from that reaction, Yeon So-hyeon turned his gaze and called out.
"Tang Baek!"
"Yes."
Tang Baek, who had been standing quietly watching Yeon So-hyeon, answered.
"Attach one of your clever subordinates to that security captain to serve as his adjutant until this situation ends."
"Yes."
An instruction spare, precise, and clear in intent. There was no complaint. At Tang Baek's glance, one of his "clever" subordinates in black clothes swiftly attached himself to the security captain.
"From this moment, every mercenary company will withdraw from fire suppression and convert to ordinary security duty."
Yeon So-hyeon took up a brush and marked a zone on the large regional map the scholars had affixed to the situation board.
"Expand the safe zone out to this area, and strengthen security posture to the maximum."
At those words the expression of the House of Mercy physician in charge of patient transport brightened. At last there would be space to take in the overflowing patients.
"Aside from the mercenaries committed to the fire, what ordinary duties currently have personnel assigned?"
The security captain racked his brains hard.
"At present the ordinary duty with the most personnel committed is the jailer work at the prison holding the local criminals!"
It seemed that in this Valley of Sin, where the Luoyang administration's public order was absent, the project group had been handling security duties as well.
"Release every prisoner and put them to labor fighting the fire. And reassign everyone who was on jailer duty entirely to security."
"But among them are vicious criminals..."
"Execute every convict caught as a murderer in the act, immediately. Then the rest will join the labor without resistance."
"Th-that's...!"
Even if they were destitute folk, an execution without legal authority—it was an order heavy with burden.
Yeon So-hyeon spoke in a resolute tone.
"I, Yeon So-hyeon, will bear every responsibility afterward."
The security captain shut his mouth firmly and nodded.
"From now on there is no need to seize suspicious persons or those caught in the act as you usually would. Beat them thoroughly and drive them out, every one!"
"Yes, understood!"
Yeon So-hyeon's gaze turned to Hyang, captain of the nearby Wongak Pavilion maid corps.
"Hyang! Attach the Four Heroes of Yellow Lake and the warrior-nuns of the Emei Sect to the security captain's mission. And have them form two-person teams with the maid corps!"
"Sir!"
"Security captain, carry out the order at once!"
The security captain, his adjutant, and Hyang left the tent.
"First Young Master!"
It was Yang Tong.
"I have tried to allocate personnel for situational awareness and order transmission as best I can, but we simply lack the numbers to cover the entire area!"
"Tang Baek!"
"Yes."
"Delegate command authority over the 'Shadows' under you to Yang Tong!"
"Yes."
The intelligence agents under the Fourth Young Master called Shadows gathered around Yang Tong. Tang Baek following the order had no complaint this time either. In a corner of his chest, he even felt a kind of relief.
The First Young Master was accurately diagnosing the project group's problems and correcting them.
The Fourth Young Master, the House of Mercy, and Hyeonwol Pavilion. The three factions that occupied three corners of the command tent had been operating by a tripartite consensus system. In ordinary times that consensus body had run on cooperation and accommodation without much friction—but in a situation like the present, it had become poison instead.
So the First Young Master was selecting supreme officers by field regardless of faction, placing the right people in the right posts and mixing the personnel together. He was binding the entire project group into one.
"Support officer!"
"Yes! Yes! That's me!"
The support officer, who had been stamping his feet with anxiety, pushed through the crowd and came forward.
"Sit here."
Yeon So-hyeon seated him at a desk stocked with the four treasures of the study.
"Forget the supplies that are urgently needed right now. What is not here is not here, and that is that. From this moment, make a list of the materials required with not only the present but the aftermath of fire suppression in mind."
"A-after suppression, you mean?"
"Yes. Catalog everything that will be needed for damage recovery after the fire is put out as well."
The First Young Master's gaze reached not only the fire that needed putting out at once, but the situation that would follow. At his order the support officer wiped his mind clean of distraction and began drafting the list with every scrap of concentration he had.
"Medical officer!"
"Yes!"
Yeon So-hyeon gave a short order.
"From this moment, every patient will be triaged."
At those words blank dismay rose on the medical officer's face, then hardened into resolve.
"...Yes."
It was an order to classify patients by their chance of survival. Though he felt the necessity keenly, as a physician he had not dared make the decision to triage—so Yeon So-hyeon had given the order in his place.
"Begin at once."
The medical officer ran out with the physicians.
Hah...
Watching from the tent entrance as Yeon So-hyeon directed the field with the fluidity of flowing water, a martial artist of the Luoyang Sword Family clicked his tongue inwardly. He was a senior escort officer of the Escort Pavilion.
That figure—it is as if I am looking at the Grand Elder of the past.
Command, the power of his orders, the force with which he seized control—everything about the First Young Master resembled the Grand Elder as he remembered him.
The difference is that he acted by instinct, while the First Young Master acts by the mind...
An aged shamaness of the House of Mercy, watching Yeon So-hyeon as he did, nodded.
That figure is as if I am looking upon Lady Yak of the past.
Without the least hesitation, taking responsibility for what ordinary people could not dare bear, lifting burdens far too heavy for ordinary shoulders—and a truly magical quality that bound into one people of every disposition, no matter how variously they were distributed.
In the brief span while each of them was lost in thought, Yeon So-hyeon's orders made a full circuit of the command tent. Then his gaze returned to the first recipient of his orders, Gwak Nopin.
"Gwak Nopin. Report."
Having even rewritten a fire-status board and concentrating on grasping the fire situation, Gwak Nopin answered in a booming voice unsuited to her age.
"Above all else, we absolutely need more equipment and more people!"
It might have seemed an obvious conclusion, but what mattered was that someone with trustworthy ability had reached it after a proper assessment. Sound decision-making is only possible when underpinned by sound situational judgment.
"That need not concern you!"
The instant his words ended, an intelligence agent of Hyeonwol Pavilion burst into the tent.
"Reporting!"
With specialists—agents—handling the messenger role on Yeon So-hyeon's orders, "fresher" information had begun to come in.
"At the mouth of the valley, enormous numbers of people are gathering one after another!"
He cried out with a bright face.
"They are the servants of the Kong family of Mount Beimang, and the manpower sent by those who answered the Kong family's request!"
It was the moment when Yeon So-hyeon's arrangement, made from the moment he received word that the fire had begun at the Kong residence, bore fruit.